TOULOUSE, France, October 4, 2022 – Pratt & Whitney today announced that Airbus has started development flight testing of the GTF Advantage engine on an A320neo aircraft. This early flight test campaign will continue to mature the engine by testing it in a variety of environments, including hot and cold weather and operation from high-altitude airports. The flight test campaign is an extension of ongoing product development by Pratt & Whitney and Airbus. Engine certification will continue through the first half of 2023, including flights currently underway on the Pratt & Whitney flying test bed in Mirabel, Québec, Canada, as well as extensive endurance testing to ensure product maturity at entry into service. The engine has completed more than 2,400 hours and 7,800 cycles of testing, including a successful test on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

“GTF engines already offer the lowest fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions for the A320neo family,” said Rick Deurloo, president of Commercial Engines at Pratt & Whitney. “The GTF Advantage engine extends that lead. It also enhances aircraft capability by increasing thrust and protects durability by running cooler. For airlines, this means new revenue opportunities and better operating economics. Our revolutionary geared fan architecture is the foundation for more sustainable aviation technologies in the decades ahead, and the GTF Advantage engine is the next step in that journey.”

The GTF Advantage engine lowers fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by up to 1% compared to the current model GTF engine. Capable of a takeoff thrust improvement of 4% at sea level, the engine could enable longer range and higher payload, making it particularly suitable for A321XLR aircraft and unlocking more destinations for airlines. In addition, the engine will offer an increase of up to 8% takeoff thrust at higher altitudes. GTF Advantage will be intermixable and interchangeable with the current GTF engine to ensure maximum operational flexibility.

The Pratt & Whitney GTF™ engine with Collins Aerospace nacelle is the only geared propulsion system delivering industry-leading sustainability benefits and dependable, world-class operating costs. GTF-powered aircraft reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by 16% to 20%, NOx emissions by up to 50% and noise footprint by up to 75%.* Certified for operation on 50% SAF and successfully tested on 100% SAF, the engines are capable of further reductions in carbon emissions, which will help the aviation industry meet its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Learn more at pwgtf.com. 

*Reductions vs. prior-generation aircraft, based on 75 dB noise contour and ICAO CAEP/6 emissions regulations.

About Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft and helicopter engines, and auxiliary power units. To learn more visit www.prattwhitney.com. To receive press releases and other news directly, please sign up here.

The introduction of IATA’s NDC and subsequent ONE Order initiatives has transformed airline retailing by giving airlines greater control over creating, distributing, and delivering offers. After a slow start, adoption of this “NDC-powered” retailing approach is rapidly gaining traction. Accelya’s FLX platform shows a 73% increase in the tickets sold through NDC channels in 2021 as against the pre-pandemic period.

But the airline retailing journey does not end with a customer buying an innovative offer and the generation of a confirmed order. Airlines must reconcile the new world of offers and orders to backend financial operations. They need to ensure downstream processes, adapt and integrate tightly with front-end systems. In this way, airlines can track all product and service line items and account all sales receivables to the bank until the offer is completely fulfilled and revenue recognized.

To meet these imperatives, we are seeing airline finance teams go above and beyond current operations to meet the traditional demands of revenue accounting while building out order accounting capabilities. As such, they are very much at the center of retailing transformation.

What is order accounting?

Order accounting is a technology solution that robustly meets current revenue accounting demands while supporting the airlines to move to a more retail-centric world of new offers and ONE Order – all within the airline’s retailing transformation journey.

It enables the processing of traditional documents (eTickets, PNRs, EMDs), NDC Orders  (Enhanced Distribution), and the single order record (Simplified Distribution) envisioned in ONE Order. It integrates with various systems like Order Management System (OMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), payment, refund management, etc.

To find out what your journey to order accounting could look like, please visit Accelya.com or click here.

Source: Accelya

SITA and Middle East Airlines–Air Liban (MEA) have renewed a technology contract and moved the airport’s baggage reconciliation system (BRS) at Rafic Hariri International Airport – Beirut to the cloud, increasing operational efficiency. This technology will significantly reduce operational costs for the airport and airline, with the server-less design avoiding on-site interventions to refresh, upgrade, maintain, and support multiple obsolete devices, such as servers.

By installing SITA’s Bag Manager cloud solution, the airport will be able to process around nine million bags per year compared to three million bags in previous years without any significant equipment investment. Airports globally are looking to increase the volume of passengers and capacity and regain lost revenues from the pandemic, with baggage handling presenting a significant obstacle to overcome.

The cloud-based technology solution will be pivotal in reducing the number of mishandled bags and supporting quick repatriation of mishandled ones, leading to higher customer satisfaction and decreased costs. SITA Bag Manager tracks every bag loaded onto an aircraft, a unit load device (ULD), or a cart. It scans and evaluates the characteristics of each bag against the flight parameters to ensure bags are loaded onto the right aircraft.

The SITA Baggage IT Insights 2022 report revealed that the global mishandled baggage rate increased by 24% to 4.35 bags per thousand passengers in 2021 as the industry recovered from the pandemic, primarily impacted by the quick resumption of international travel and reduced workforces.

Dr. Adib Charif, Head of IT, MEA, said: “SITA has been the provider of BRS at Rafic Hariri International Airport – Beirut since 2009, and we’re excited to continue our technology partnership with this next stage of our digitalization program. By moving a server-based system to the cloud, we’ve cut down on cumbersome operation procedures, eliminated regular maintenance costs, and freed up resources to focus on other essential services. We’re committed to giving passengers a seamless passenger journey and leading the way in the region during the industry recovery”.

Hani El Asaad, President, Middle East & Africa SITA, said: “We’ve seen a global trend in the rate of mishandled bags increasing in line with the rapid resumption of international travel. Technology holds the solutions to the challenges our industry is facing during this transformative post-pandemic period, where airports and airlines need to achieve more with less. We’re excited to partner again with MEA to deliver a smart and agile cloud-based solution to overcome these hurdles, increase operational efficiency and boost passenger confidence.”

MEA is the flag carrier of Lebanon and represents around 40% of the traffic at the airport. Middle East Airline Ground Handing (MEAG, a subsidiary of MEA) represents 80% of the baggage processing at the airport, while the remaining 20% is handled by The Lebanese Air Transport (LAT, the ground handlers), which also installed SITA’s cloud-based BRS.

Integration with other SITA baggage solutions such as Bag Journey and WorldTracer further helps to reduce the number of mishandled baggage and quickly repatriate any mishandled ones.

Source: SITA

Safran Landing Systems has been selected by Philippine Airlines (PAL) to carry out the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) operations on the landing gear of some 30 Airbus A330 and A320 family airplanes.
The contract will start this year and run through 2024 for eight A330 widebody aircraft and through 2025 for twenty A320 and A321 aircraft in the fleet of the Philippine flag carrier.

These maintenance operations will be carried out at Safran’s Singapore workshop, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC), which has over 300 employees specialized in landing gear overhauls.
Alvin Kendrich O. Limqueco, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management of Philippine Airlines said: “Philippine Airlines is pleased to forge this latest partnership with Safran Landing Systems as part of our top-priority safety and maintenance campaigns to ensure the continued reliability of Philippine Airlines (PAL)’s fleet. The arrangement will ultimately benefit our passengers who fly on our A330 and A320/A321 aircraft serving our domestic, regional and global networks. ”

Bruno Chiarelli, Safran Landing Systems Executive Vice President – MRO added: “We are delighted to be once again selected by Philippine Airlines for their landing gears overhaul. This new partnership perpetuates a long-standing collaboration of trust as well as strengthening our presence in the Asia-Pacific region with currently more than 500 overhauled landing gears by Safran Landing Systems per year”.

Safran Landing Systems offers MRO support services through a large rotable asset pool across regional narrow-body and long-range aircraft types, and an international network of 8 service centers in Europe, Asia and the Americas, which perform more than 12,000 repairs annually for more than 300 customers worldwide.

Philippine Airlines deploys its twin-aisle A330 aircraft on routes to Hawaii, the Middle East, Australia and several Asian countries. PAL’s A320 and A321 aircraft are the mainstays for domestic routes to major Philippine cities as well as on routes to various points in South East and North East Asia.

The contract will also benefit from Landing LifeTM support and services offer covering all Safran Landing Systems’ after-sales business and aiming to provide a responsive, reliable and good-value service.

Safran is an international high-technology group operating in the aviation (propulsion, equipment and interiors), space and defense markets. Its core purpose is to contribute to a safer, more sustainable world where air transport is more environmentally friendly, comfortable and accessible. Safran has a global presence, with 76,800 employees and sales of 15.3 billion euros in 2021 and holds, alone or in partnership, world or regional leadership positions in its core markets. Safran is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange and is part of the CAC 40 and Euro Stoxx 50 indices.

Safran Landing Systems is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems. Its expertise covers the entire lifecycle of its products, from design and manufacturing to maintenance and repair. The company has partnerships with more than 25 airframers in civil, regional, commercial and military transport, supporting more than 32,000 aircraft and making over 80,000 landings every day.

Philippine Airlines is the Philippines’ flag carrier and only full-service network airline. PAL was the first commercial airline in Asia and celebrated its 81st anniversary in March 2022. PAL’s young fleet of Boeing 777s, Airbus A350s, Airbus A330s, Airbus A320s/A321s, and De Havilland DHC-8-400 Next Generation aircraft operate out of hubs in Manila, Cebu, and Davao to 30 destinations in the Philippines and 32 destinations in Asia, North America, Australia, and the Middle East. PAL was rated a 4-Star Global Airline by Skytrax in 2018 and was voted the World’s Most Improved Airline in the 2019 Skytrax worldwide passenger survey with a ranking of 30th best airline in the world.

For further details: safran-group.com / Follow @Safran and @SafranLandingS on Twitter.
For further details: www.philippineairlines.com / Follow facebook.com/PhilippineAirlines

A little like NDC, ONE Order adoption will be a slow-burning transformation, but it will be well worth the journey, as ONE Order will dramatically simplify the whole industry. Removing existing accountable documents in favor of a more straightforward and more logical Order structure will drive out complexity, reduce costs, and help airlines build the real creative customer opportunities that come with retailing.

It will take between three to five years for the groundwork on ONE Order to be completed, and then we will see more significant changes happening in five to ten years as the industry rallies around IATA’s Future Interline model. However, airlines should start getting ready for ONE Order now. Recognizing the need to change and the benefits of moving away from legacy systems and processes is essential to delivering value. The challenge ahead lies in the transition, and successful transition management will help airlines drive benefits along the way rather than settling for second-best resulting in re-badged versions of legacy artifacts.

A clear, structured path that unlocks value every step of the way is essential to success. The commitment and investment involved in this shift are significant. But the most important thing is to start and adopt an agile approach that adopts and adapts to learnings along the way.

The simplification that ONE Order will bring will be far from simple, but airlines don’t have to tackle all the aspects of this retailing transformation at the same time. Even the most complex tasks can be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps.

If you want to learn more about Accelya’s approach to ONE Order, please visit accelya.com or click here.

Source: Accelya